APPENDIX II [ Page 109 footnote | Tur Bencaur Braue With respect to the name given to the Serampore Bible, we have the following entry in Fountain’s Diary on the 4th January, 1798 (quoted in Con(ributions towards a History of Biblical Translations in India, Caleutta, 1854) :-—“ This morning the Pundit attended upon us. It was observed . that the word Wangalakhyan would not properly denomi- nate the whole Bible, as it only signified ‘ good news,’ a term more applicable to the Gospel. It was then proposed to call the Bible Dharma Shastra: but the Pundit said Shastra only meant that writing which contained commands or orders. We must therefore call it Dharma pustaka, viz., the Holy Book.” On the 18th March, 1800,' the first sheet of Matthew was printed. On the 7th February, 1801, the first edition of the Bengali New Testament was published. It consisted of 2,000 copies ; the expense was £62. In 1500, the translation of the Old Testament was finished. The books of the Old Testament, as printed by the Serampore Press (1801-09) are in 4 volumes, r/z., (1) Pentateuch, 1801; (2) Joshua-Esther, 1809; (3) Job- Song of Solomon, 1804; (4) Isaiah-Malachi, 1805. According to the Serampore Memoirs, however, the dates of publication are: (1) 1802 ; (2) 1809; (8) 1803; (4) 1807. The Memoirs, however, are not always reliable in this respect. The Psalter appears to have been issued separately in 1803.
- The date is incorrectly given as 1803 by Dinesh Ch. Sen (Hist. of
Beng. Lang. and Lit. 1911, p. 852). See Tenth Memoir, Appendix.
